Absurd sums for Olympic stay Landlords in Paris experience disappointment instead of a windfall

Before the start of the Olympics, landlords of private accommodation in Paris were hoping for the business of the century. Now many are disappointed because bookings have failed to materialize. There are two reasons for this.

Keystone-SDA

29.07.2024, 04:51

29.07.2024, 08:03

SDA

The hoped-for business of the century from bookings of private accommodation around the Olympic Games in Paris has failed to materialize. One reason for this is the large supply. Long before the start of the Olympic Games, private room renters and apartment owners in Paris were hoping for a lucrative business. They wanted to rent out accommodation to visitors to the Games for astronomical sums - but now there is great disillusionment. As the newspaper "Le Parisien" reports, based on data from AirDNA, a company specializing in the analysis of rental data, many rooms remain empty on many competition days.

Olympic tickerThe Paris Games are officially over ++ The USA remains number 1

A fifth of accommodation remained empty

According to the report, there are 87,000 room offers on major booking platforms in the greater Paris area, of which 43,500 are available on all competition days. However, according to the analysis, only twelve percent of these rooms could actually be rented throughout the event. And there were no reservations at all for around a fifth of the rooms.

One of the reasons cited is that, in parallel to a sharp increase in reservations of 128 percent, the supply also shot up by 129 percent. This is because many people decided to temporarily rent out their rooms or apartments in view of the games.

Increased supply of accommodation pushes prices down

Overall occupancy in the region thus remains almost stable at 54 percent during the Olympic period, compared to 56 percent in the same period last year. "It is understandable that many hosts are not satisfied," AirDNA spokeswoman Chloé Garlaschi told the Parisien. This is all the more annoying for these landlords as their prices have fallen as the Games approach due to the interplay of supply and demand.

It is reported that private accommodation in Paris during the Olympic Games is now only 1.4 times more expensive than during a normal summer. As an industry representative explained to the newspaper, most of the vacancies are in accommodation in the heart of the French capital, where landlords have tried to charge the most absurd prices for a place to stay.